Faculty of Agriculture

Departments
Agronomy

Plant Breeding &

Genetics

Plant Pathology
Entomology
Forestry & Range Management
Crop Physiology

 

Department of Agronomy

 

 

 

Dr. Mahboob Akhtar

The Agriculture Section, predecessor of Agronomy Department, was one of the few sections which started functioning with the establishment of the former Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute at Faisalabad (Lyallpur) in 1906. First Professor of Agronomy was appointed in the same year. This Section kept functioning up to 1962 when the status of college was raised to University and the Section was renamed as Department of Agronomy. Former Agriculture Section offered M.Sc. degree to 38 students and produced 126 research publications.

 

 

With the inception of the University most of senior staff members opted for research leaving back a few junior teachers. One or two senior teachers who opted for the University were abroad in pursuance of higher studies. After its inception, the Department had no regular chairman for the first five years. It was only after 1967 that a regular Chairman of the Department was appointed from the Agronomy staff. Currently Agronomy is the largest Department of the University and has earned the title of "parent department".

Under-Graduate and Graduate Students

Department is widely acclaimed and attracts a large number of students, more than it can accommodate. However, students with good academics have never been discouraged. The Department offers courses leading to Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees.

Several general courses in Agronomy are offered to all under-graduate students who are enrolled in the Faculty of Agriculture, the number of which over years runs into thousands.

Todate, the Department has produced over 1960 B.Sc.(Hons) Agri. students majoring in Agronomy. Furthermore, 46 and 1307 students have completed Ph.D. and M.Sc. (Agri.) degrees, respectively from this Department.

Apart from Pakistani students, a considerable number of foreign students hailing from various countries such as Afghanistan, China, Iran, Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Thailand, etc. obtained their M.Sc. (Hons) Agri.degree from the Department.

Post-Graduate Courses

The Department is always in the process of developing and introducing new courses to keep abreast with the latest developments in the field of Agronomy.
.
The Department is currently offering the following courses at the post-graduate level:

1. Modern Concepts in Crop Productivity
2. Crop Production and Herbicides
3. Management of Crop Nutrition
4. Advanced Irrigation Agronomy
5. Applied Crop Ecology
6. Field Crop Experimentation
7. Advanced Agronomy
8. Applied Conservation Agronomy
9. Seed Technology
10. Crop Management on Problem Soils
11. Agro-meteorology
12. Advanced Crop Production Technology
13. Weed Management
14. Arid Zone Agronomy
15. Plant Environments and Efficient water use
16. Post-harvest Seed Processing
17. Sustainable Agriculture
18. Recent Advances in Agronomy
19. Special Problem
20. Seminar
21. Stress Agronomy
22. Farming Systems for Sustainable Crop Production
23. Allelopathy in Crop Production

The faculty and graduate students are actively involved in conducting research on different agronomic aspects, with special emphasis on the following fields.

1. Production Agronomy of Major Crops and Cropping Systems.
2. Crop Agronomy on Problem Soils, Crop Nutrition, and Agronomy of Grain Legumes and Oilseeds.
3. Seed Science (Seed Production/Multiplication Practices), Agronomy of Minor Crops.
4. Weed Science and Allelopathy.
5. Agro-Meteorology, Irrigation Scheduling and Crop Growth Modeling.

Research Facilities

The Department has a broad range of facilities for faculty and students engaged in specialized research. In addition to the facilities available for field research at the Student's Farm at the Main Campus and Post-Graduate Agricultural Research Station (PARS), the Department has well established Weed Science, Seed Science and Agro-Biology Laboratories. The Department has also developed a computing laboratory. Library facility at departmental level is available in addition to that of a Central library.

Research Area

The Department has 82 acres area at the Campus and PARS as shown below:

1. University Campus 50 acres
2. Post Graduate Agricultural 32 acres
Research Station, located at Jhang
Road - 10 km from the Main Campus

Achievements

- Developed and standardized slanting technique to study seed germination and seedling growth behaviour.
- Heat treatment of cottonseed for better germination and stand establishment.
- Versatile technology for plantation of Sugarcane.
- Plant nutrition requirements of wheat grown on saline soils.
- Planting geometry in relation to land equivalent ratio.
- Allelopathy-as a tool to manage weed infestation.
 

Publications

The faculty actively participates in academic and research activities. The staff contributes to the Popular articles and Research Journals of both National and International repute. Other than publishing a large number of popular articles, the Department has published over 550 research papers. Crop and fodder charts have been compiled for use by the faculty, students and the farmers.

Faculty

 
Name
Designation
Degree
Dr. Asghar Ali

Professor &

Chairman

Ph.D, Bangor, Wales (U.K)
Dr. M.Asghar Malik Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. Abid Hussain Professor Ph.D (NewZealand)
Dr. Zahid Atta Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr.M.Sadique Sharar Assoc. Professor M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. Muhammad Saeed Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Wisconsin (USA)
Dr. Aman Ullah Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Bangor, Wales (U.K)
Dr. Muhammad Ayub Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Bangor, Wales (U.K)
Dr. Riaz Ahmad Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. Asif Tanveer Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. Ehsan Ullah Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. Tariq Mahmood Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. Mumtaz A.Cheema Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. Ashfaq Ahmad Assoc. Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Dr. M.Maqsood Bajwa Assist. Professor Ph.D, Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr. Abdul Khaliq Assist. Professor M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr.Syed Aftab Wajid Lecturer M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr.Azraf-ul-Haq Ahmad Lecturer M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr.M.Shahib Ibni Zamir Lecturer M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr. Nadeem Akbar Lecturer M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr.M.Farrukh Saleem Lecturer M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr. Asif Iqbal Lecturer M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)
Mr. Athar Nadeem Lecturer M.Sc(Hons), Univ. Agri. Fsd. (Pak)

 

                                                    Copy right © 2004 by University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan